Duda Spoke About Sending Polish Troops To Ukraine

The possible dispatch of Polish troops to Ukraine is “a subject for discussion”, but there is no such discussion yet, Polish President Andrzej Duda told RMF FM radio. He made his statement before flying to Brussels, where he will meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

And if it came to any issue of a ceasefire, a discussion on the topic of peacekeeping forces, the protection of our territory as the territory of the eastern flank of the Alliance, insuring us and our allies against potential Russian aggression would be of primary importance,” he added.At the same time, the Polish leader noted that such issues have not yet been discussed.

“There is no such discussion yet. No one has made such a specific proposal, no one has presented what the formula should be, what it should be. So there are no discussions yet,” he said following a conference on Ukraine support in Paris in late February French President  Emmanuel Macron said that Western leaders had discussed the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, with no consensus yet, “but nothing can be ruled out.” During a meeting with opposition leaders in early March, Macron reiterated that France had “no limits or red lines” on the issue of aid to Ukraine. Macron’s words about the possible sending of troops to Ukraine were sharply criticized by a number of NATO partners, including Germany, as well as political forces in France itself. French party leaders accused Macron of dragging Paris into the conflict and of frivolity, reproaching him for not consulting with parliament on these issues. At the same time, Macron’s aggressive rhetoric was supported by representatives of the Baltic states, as well as 

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The Kremlin later stated that they had paid attention to Macron’s words that the topic of sending troops to Ukraine was discussed in Europe, his position on Russia inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow in Ukraine is also well known. They noted that a number of countries participating in the Paris event on Ukraine maintain “a fairly sober assessment of the potential dangers of such an action and the potential danger of direct involvement in a hot conflict”, this is “absolutely not in the interests of these countries, they must be aware of this”.Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement, directly involve NATO countries in the conflict and are “playing with fire”. Russian Foreign Minister 

Sergey Lavrov noted that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine will be a legitimate target for Russia. According to him the US and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, including not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries. The Kremlin stated that pumping weapons into Ukraine by the West does not contribute to negotiations and will have a negative effect.

About The Author

Benjamin Wallace-Wells

Benjamin Wallace-Wells is a staff writer at the The New Yorker since 2006. He worked for New York magazine, the Times Magazine, and Rolling Stone.

See author's posts